Middle class, the term itself gives an impression of a group lying midway between the two extreme classes. The three recognized socio-economic categories are upper class, middle class and lower class. To talk about this, another point needs to be stated. At times, a special class is also taken into account, namely the lower-middle class, which is halfway between middle and poor class.
With no literary definition of middle class or any unambiguous specification of its characteristics, determining the class is not that simple. You must be wondering whether you belong to this section or not. Well, that is judged on the basis of various factors. In fact, there are multiple ways through which you can determine, and also cross check, whether or not you fit into this division. The very truth about this segment of the population is that a huge fraction of the world’s total population belongs to this specific category. By now, you must be curious enough to find out your exact position. If you really seek this answer, then allow yourself a minute or two to go though the article carefully; you will get the answer for sure.
1. How much you make in a year?
It’s a fact that class determination is hugely dependent on your financial condition. The first and foremost question you should ask yourself is how much you manage to earn every year. The question is not to decide whether it is sufficient to sustain yourself or not, but to decide on which slab you fall into. Well, that does not mean that you can take into account the unprecedented win in a lottery, or something similar to that. A study conducted in the year 2011 by Pew Charitable Trust on the ‘mobility of the middle class’ consisting of four members (two adults and two children) is considered a middle class, if the earning amount is $32,900 or more. For this particular population group, the upper limit stands at $64,000 per annum.
2. Do you have a stable job?
Couple of decades back, 70% of the U.S. population considered that owning a home was the most crucial factor to get the approval of belonging to middle class category. However, the concept has transformed over time and now people believe that a secured job is more relevant in proving someone to be in the middle class group. So do you fulfill this condition?
3. Are you a valuable customer of Health Insurance Company?
Yes, probably the most burning issue at present is health care. If you are able to secure yours and your family’s medical expenses through health insurance, then you will be connoted as a member of middle class. Additionally, if you do have a health insurance, then you are through!
4. Do you think it is tough to manage with the inflation pace?
Though hard to believe, but most of the middle class public presume that it is more difficult to maintain a stable standard life nowadays compared to a decade ago. Owing to rapid pace of inflation, commodities seem to be unaffordable in the recent times. A survey conducted by Pew successfully established the fact that 87% of people, considering themselves as middle class, think in a similar fashion. However, most of them seem to overlook the parallel fact that even population and employment have also soared up, beside inflation, compared to what it was a decade ago. Purchased a laptop, 5 years back, is the cost the same as it is now, or does 100 dollars have the same value in 2014, as it was in 2000? Think once.
5. Take up a quiz!
Sounds interesting, right? If you still feel like double checking your socio-economic condition, then why don’t you take up a quick quiz to evaluate your position. It will hardly take couple of minutes to answer the questionnaire flawlessly. Your immaculate response will fetch you your accurate position. For instance, the questions may include, your neighborhood, your education level, your favorite spare time activity, usage of your credit cards, your vacation destinations, and of course the condition of your teeth. Thus, you can personally assess yourself.
6. “All well that ends well”
So, by now you must have been convinced of your precise socio-economic, or rather financial position. At the end, one basic piece of information needs special mention. Are you aware of the truth that if you take birth in a middle class family, it does not imply that you will continue to belong to the same class? It’s true, practical as well as feasible. If you wish, education and economic advancement can pull you up to the 2% of the world’s population i.e. the upper class. Remember the phrase, all well that ends well? Yes, in fact this should be the tag line of every middle class persoaiming to surpass the middle class boundary to scale up to the higher class.
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